Spotlight on Québec
By Shawn Lawrence
Big things brewing at
BELLUS Could an exit be on the horizon?
W
hen BELLUS Health announced in early May 2014 that it had engaged U.S. biotechnology merger and acquisition firm Lazard as financial advisors to explore the sale of the company’s lead product and program, KIACTA™, many on the capital markets side wondered if BELLUS was on the brink of a big exit. The question inevitably came up at the recent Bloom Burton Conference, with the investor audience wondering if the timing was right to hitch their wagons to this upstart company. That’s what happens when a company reaches this stage in the game. It’s not just that the aforementioned KIACTA™ - cur-
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rently in a confirmatory Phase 3 trial - is promising as a treatment for AA Amyloidosis, but the fact that it is an orphan drug, a very hot commodity in the biotech space. Once the forgotten cousins of the pharmaceutical industry, orphan drugs are now its fastest growing category and very much in high demand. As appealing to potential investors and buyers is the name behind the company. As CEO and president of BELLUS Health, Roberto Bellini is a rarity in Canadian biotech; a second generation biotech CEO. His father, Francesco Bellini, accomplished what most scientists and entrepreneurs in the space can only dream of. BioChem Pharma, the company he founded and ran, developed the
Biotechnology Focus / August/September 2014
HIV-AIDS medication 3TC, a billion dollar blockbuster before selling the company to Shire Pharmaceuticals in one of the biggest cash deals in Canadian biotech history. In the case of younger Bellini, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Like his father, Roberto was raised a scientist and received his Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at McGill University. Likewise, the leap from science to business for Roberto happened at a very young age, launching Picchio Pharma with his father, a family company that was created to invest in the biotech space. “It was just good timing with my father having sold BioChem, we decided together to start a family business and run it very much like a venture capital firm. Our strategy was
